Florence – French immersion in South Brittany

We stayed with Flo and her family for a one week immersion course in March. We improved tremendously in our confidence in speaking and in our listening comprehension in just that one week. We had lessons every day with homework each evening. The lessons included very useful tools to understand and converse in everyday French.
Flo prepared fantastic meals for breakfast and lunch every day, and two evening meals were included with her husband Dawson preparing traditional galettes for one of them (and teaching us how to make them as well). The meals included traditional French dishes made with local products and were delicious.
The immersion also included several excursions the Suscinio chateau, the beach near Vannes, Carnac, and market day in Vannes.
We stayed in Flo's comfortable gite in a renovated longere. We would highly recommend the course, and we hope to return in the future.

I just returned from my immersion week Chez Flo. It was an exceptional experience from beginning to end. Flo’s lessons are incredibly well-planned, engaging and fun. I always felt challenged (exactly what I asked for) and encouraged – so I learned a lot.

Flo and Dawson are so welcoming and kind; it was a pleasure to stay in their modern, comfy “Gîte” for the week. I was totally spoiled by their home-grown produce and delicious meals.

Our excursions could not have been better – everything from sandy beaches to medieval castles, exploring quaint villages and gathering mushrooms in the forest! Even more fun, I had the opportunity to meet and chat with some of the locals during my free time. I’ve already reserved to come back next year, it will be my third immersion Chez Flo I can’t wait!!

I spent a wonderful week with Flo and Dawson in Saint Jean Brévelay, exploring beautiful Brittany and the surrounding countryside. From the moment I arrived, Flo made me feel completely at ease. She has such a warm, welcoming nature and a real passion for food and cooking that comes through in everything she does.

The week was full of laughter, great food, and lots of learning. I loved the focus on local produce and traditional dishes, and Flo’s patience and encouragement made the whole experience so enjoyable. My first attempt at galettes wasn’t too bad, with the expert guidance of Dawson, and I picked up so many useful tips along the way.

The gîte is gorgeous and the perfect place to stay, peaceful, comfortable, and full of charm. I also had plenty of laughs trying to perfect my French pronunciation, which became a fun part of the week.

It was such a special experience, and I left feeling inspired and grateful. Flo is a wonderful host and teacher, and I can’t recommend this enough.

It's hard to describe how much fun it was to spend a week with Flo! She's a delightful, energetic teacher with a passion for Breton history, culture and cuisine. I enjoyed meeting her family and dog Maia (the cat was asleep elsewhere), and the crepe-making lesson was wonderful! Her parents, who live very close, were also welcoming. The gite next door, where I stayed, was beautiful and comfortable.

Flo is a very organized teacher, who gave me a mix of grammar exercises (in class and for homework), reading from books, watching videos and exposure to cultural landmarks. I feel so much more competent in French and confident in my speaking abilities. I am also more tuned in to exploring cultural aspects of the country I am visiting.

For immersion lessons, I cannot recommend her highly enough. Merci, Flo!

Florence was on point. For us, this week at Chez Flo became a lot more than strengthening our French.

La Professeur

Florence worked out our level of French well, in advance, and managed the difference in our levels and we both came out feeling like we’d learned a significant amount. Some things that/which/who we had struggled with for years, she resolved in minutes. Brilliant. She had a great sense of humour in class and on many occasions we found ourselves in French stitches we laughed so hard.

L’Hôte

Florence provided excellent accommodation both in Le Gîte, in the dining room and upstairs in the classroom, outdoor cooking and eating.

La Cuisinière et Le Cuisinier

Vegetables which came from the garden were absolutely delicious and indeed the courgettes we took with us survived a miraculous 2 weeks, as fresh as the day they were picked. All dishes, whether the simplicity of le petit dej, le dej having exhausted our brains in class or le dîner were très très très délicieux. Dawson’s galette lessons were both very tasty and a delight to participate in; thank you.

La Guide Touristique

As a tour guide, it was like going with a friend but Florence never dropped her guard, insisting we spoke French all the time. We visited Carnac where not only did we see the sites but she made it educational. We visited Rochefort-en-Terre and also Vannes, the latter giving us a wonderful entree for our following two week stay.

Florence and family including Maya and chickens were simply delightful and Le Gîte was much more than one could hope for. A very comfortable and memorable week. Send our regards to the local farmer Gilbert.

Our stay at Chez Flo surpassed our expectations! Flo is a perceptive teacher and an engaging host. As a teacher, she quickly identified ways we could build on our basic French conversation skills. We asked for grammar homework and we got it, which helped us review principles we’d discussed with her earlier in the day. But Flo has so much more to offer as a teacher than mere homework assignments! She uses a variety of teaching strategies, like doing targeted exercises together and reading short passages aloud then discussing them. Even outside of the formal lessons, Flo is always in teaching mode. She emphasizes developing conversational fluency, and she gave us plenty of opportunities to practice. We interacted with her family and friends throughout the week, who generously spoke with us clearly and simply so we could participate in the conversations. Flo brings the grammar lessons into these conversations, occasionally correcting us to reinforce what we’ve studied during lessons. During outings, Flo gave us a deeper understanding of French culture than we could have gotten on our own. Flo puts her all into every aspect of this language and culture learning experience, and we are deeply appreciative!

It has been a great pleasure to take a 2-week immersion course with Florence. The 2-storey self-contained gîte is very clean and proper, with everything necessary for a comfortable stay. It is connected to Florence’s and therefore easily accessible for meals and lessons.
Florence is very cheerful and energetic. She manages to cook tasty meals, bring us out for half a day, and then still gives us very good one-on-one lessons. In the first lesson, she asked us to do a quick test to find out areas for improvement, explained the grammar and usage, and then gave us exercises to practise what we learned.
We enjoy the outings with Florence because we can learn more about the history and culture of Brittany. During the half-day trips, we practise our oral French and have many of our questions about the daily life of the French people answered.
Florence’s family members are also very welcoming. Her husband Dawson showed us his hen den, the well in garden and the farmland. Her parents Guy and Annick enthusiastically shared their passion for gardening with us. We are honoured to have a ride in Leyla’s (Flo’s daughter) first car the very day it was bought. And we were so lucky to have attended Annick’s 80th birthday party with all her children’s families and some good friends.
My husband, who has only learned French through Duolingo, joined me on this stay and also took lessons from Flo. He finds Flo’a lessons very useful and he thoroughly enjoyed the stay.

All in all, our stay in chez Flo is very enjoyable and the unique experience is certainly unforgettable

It has been a great pleasure to take a 2-week immersion course with Florence. The 2-storey self-contained gîte is very clean and proper, with everything necessary for a comfortable stay. It is connected to Florence’s and therefore easily accessible for meals and lessons.
Florence is very cheerful and energetic. She manages to cook tasty meals, bring us out for half a day, and then still gives us very good one-on-one lessons. In the first lesson, she asked us to do a quick test to find out areas for improvement, explained the grammar and usage, and then gave us exercises to practise what we learned.
We enjoy the outings with Florence because we can learn more about the history and culture of Brittany. During the half-day trips, we practise our oral French and have many of our questions about the daily life of the French people answered.
Florence’s family members are also very welcoming. Her husband Dawson showed us his hen den, the well in garden and the farmland. Her parents Guy and Annick enthusiastically shared their passion for gardening with us. We are honoured to have a ride in Leyla’s (Flo’s daughter) first car the very day it was bought. And we were so lucky to have attended Annick’s 80th birthday party with all her children’s families and some good friends.
My husband, who has only learned French through Duolingo, joined me on this stay and also took lessons from Flo. He finds Flo’a lessons very useful and he thoroughly enjoyed the stay.

All in all, our stay in chez Flo is very enjoyable and the unique experience is certainly unforgettable

We spent 2 wonderful weeks at Chez Flo & would do it all over again in an instant. As the weakest of my French immersion group of three, I was able to engage fully in the daily lessons & improve my French fluency & comprehension. From Day 1 the lessons were tailored to meet each of our specific learning needs but also to appeal to each of our individual interests. You will notice that Flo observes & takes notes of conversations/discussions outside of lesson times & incorporates them into the next lesson, personalizing your learning experience & making it meaningful.

We loved the cooking lessons (in French, of course), eating/sharing the delicious things we made, the daily field trips around the beautiful département of Morbihan & learning about the history of the region & its significance during WWII, all coordinated and delivered by Flo!

Flo & her family are warm, welcoming & full of fun. They made learning the French language fun & we truly felt like part of their family. We would also note that they went above & beyond the call of duty in more ways than one to make it a very memorable experience. It was really one of the very best holidays we have had.

I have had 2 Immersion experiences with Flo. on the first one, my husband stayed , but he did other things in the mornings whilst I had my French lessons. then we spent the afternoon with Flo, visiting local Places of Interest. the morning program for my French was excellent - aimed at my level .
last year, i visited Flo on my own , and once again had lots of French, fun and experiences. i really loved our walks around Flo's property, through fields of wild flowers .
Flo's home is gorgeous and the self-contained Gite is perfect. these have been authentic French Immersion experiences

Flo,

Thank you for all you did for Laura and me during our stay earlier this month. Really, it could not have been better—it was both fun and a great learning experience for both of us. We particularly appreciated all you did to accommodate our several special requests, from arranging a wonderful garden tour to a briefing on France’s government to learning to cook galettes, crepes and even galettes des rois. You and Dawson were such gracious hosts and made us feel welcome every day in your lovely home; I meant it when I said to let us know if you visit Texas as we’d enjoy seeing both of you again.

From creating grammar lessons specially directed to our numerous weaknesses to keeping a running note on vocabulary during casual conversation, you used every minute to best effect, helping us to be a great deal more comfortable in French. The combination of an excellent French teacher and an engaging tour guide is hard to beat! We loved seeing Vannes and the Gulf of Morbihan especially, and your own knowledge and love of the area made everything more fun.

I can heartily recommend a week with you to anyone interested in gaining fluency in French

​Ps. Please do especially thank your mother for opening her garden to us. Her garden is incredible and would compare favorably to many on garden tours where the owner has a great deal of professional help. Her skill, knowledge of the plants, and artistic arrangement will stay with me a long time. I have extensive notes from the catalog she loaned me (thank you!) and plan to place an order in early winter for this spring, when I hope I can get back.

Brittany is such a beautiful part of France, far from the more worn tourist route normally taken. Here is a chance to experience ‘real’ France and the French way of life. Flo is a warm, generous and accommodating host and a great teacher of the French language and French culture. She is especially passionate about Brittany and its history and I learnt so much in the short time I spent with her and her wonderful family. I highly recommend staying in their lovely gite which is adjacent to the family home. I was so struck by this location. It is surrounded by serene and beautiful countryside and just a short way from the gorgeous village of St Jean- Brevelay (don’t miss the épicerie fine) and from Vannes. I really loved Vannes - the old Bretagne centre, the canals, art galleries, food and flea markets, a chocolate exposition (wow!) And its nearby oyster/seafood cabanes. We also took a boat out from there to the islands in the Gulf de Morbihan which I enjoyed immensely. Above all though, my French language certainly improved and yes, it is true, after only a few days I was thinking and dreaming in French! Thank you Flo